View full sizeBrian Feulner, The OregonianThe YWCA will sell its 10th Avenue headquarters in downtown Portland -- although the nonprofit hopes to stay in the building in some capacity -- as it slashes operating costs by reducing staff and programs. The group's leadership hopes other nonprofits will pick up some of its eliminated programs and staff.

The YWCA of Greater Portland, for more than a century a force in the city's community service sector, will cut a large swath of staff and programs in coming months amid turbulent finances.

Executive Director Eric Brown announced a "re-invention" at the nonprofit earlier this month. The changes will include selling the organization's iconic downtown headquarters, eliminating nearly half of staff positions, and shedding unique services for recently incarcerated women, among other things.

"We recognize that our current model is not sustainable for the future," Brown said in an interview. "This really is about our reinvention and reaching for the future."

Investment losses in the economic downturn, combined with dwindling funds from governmental programs, have made the YWCA's current scope of services untenable in the long term, Brown said.

The organization plans to eliminate 47 percent of its services and, combined with a cost-cutting initiative last year, slash 40 percent of its operating costs.

The outcome, Brown said, will be a more-streamlined YWCA, better equipped to impact clients' lives. But the cuts also represent a sharp reduction for an organization that's helped women, children, the destitute and elderly -- in varying capacities and forms -- for more than a century.

And industry watchers say the decisions the YWCA makes in the coming months will determine how effective the organization is in the future.

Three core services will remain through the reinvention period -- domestic violence resources through its Yolanda House shelter, a senior services center, and its Camp Westwind program.

The rest of its offerings will be phased out in coming months, either picked up by other area nonprofits or eliminated.

These include the Transitional Opportunities Project, which since 1979 has helped recently incarcerated women transition smoothly into the community through classes and temporary housing. That program, which served nearly 130 women last year, is unique to the area and the only gender-specific program of its kind in the nation, the YWCA's website says.

The YWCA also is foregoing its energy assistance program, which helps the destitute with utility bills. Another Portland nonprofit, Neighborhood House, has agreed to take on the program, Brown said. LearnLinks, the YWCA's after-school tutoring and mentoring program, also will likely be adopted by another organization, he said.

Nearly half of the YWCA's 62-person staff will be let go, Brown estimated. Some may be hired by other nonprofits willing to take on the programs.

And the organization will put up for sale its headquarters, 1111 S.W. 10th Ave., though Brown said he hopes the YWCA can stay there in some capacity.

"That is a very painful move for their supporters," said Kay Sohl, a Portland consultant who works with nonprofits on development and planning issues nationwide. "As they let go of that downtown building, I think that they very well might let go of a core part of their identity."

In 2003, the building was renovated for $8.2 million.

"At that time, no one could have anticipated that less than a decade later, Oregon would struggle to overcome the prolonged challenge of a difficult economic recession," reads a YWCA announcement.

According to Internal Revenue Service documents, in fiscal 2007, after posting more than $1 million in gains the year before, the organization's net assets decreased by almost $800,000. The next year, they plunged by nearly $2 million.

Much is from investment losses as markets soured, but the YWCA also saw an almost 35 percent reduction in government funding from 2006 to 2009.

Nonprofits nationwide have struggled to stretch government money, Sohl said, and mid-size community service groups seem to have been disproportionately affected.

Brown, who emphasized the cuts should be looked at as a positive, said the shifts will lead to a leaner, more effective nonprofit -- one more adaptable to shifting economic realities and having real impact on lives.

What that looks like is unclear. A task force consisting of community constituents, staff and board members will convene to shape the organization's role.